Two Weapon Fighting and 'light' off hand

[AvatarFan2010]

I want to have the least amount of attack roll penalty as possible with my heavy steel shield as my off-hand shield bash weapon, while having my primary hand being my dwarven double waraxe. It says under the heavy steel shield descriptor that "For the purposes of penalties on attack rolls, treat a heavy shield as a one-handed weapon." When having the Two Weapon Fighting feat my negatives are currently going to be -4 for my primary and -4 for my offhand unless my 'offhand' is considered 'light'. The dumbest question of the century but is my heavy steel shield considered a 'light' weapon so I can only have a -2 attack penalty or no? If not, is there a feat that can reduce my attack penalty when i'm two weapon fighting?

[Khudzlin]

The easiest way is to use a light shield instead of a heavy shield. You'd lose 1 AC, but your attack penalties would only be -2/-2, because a light shield is considered a light weapon.

[Blymurkla]

'Light' refers to a category of melee weapons, i.e. light weapons. Other categories are one-handed weapons and two-handed weapons. A heavy shield can be used as a one-handed weapon, not a light weapon.

I think there's a feat, maybe one if those tied to a deity, that let's you treat heavy shields as light weapons. But I can't remember exactly.

Consider switching armaments, either to a light shield or a light weapon.

[Gisher]

Blymurkla wrote:

...

I think there's a feat, maybe one if those tied to a deity, that let's you treat heavy shields as light weapons. But I can't remember exactly.
...

There is the Shield-Trained Trait (Religion) from Inner Sea Gods. The deity is Gorum.

[Sundakan]

Mind you it doesn't matter after 6th level (Ranger/Slayer), 10th level (Fighter, any full BaB class with a Combat feat at 10th), or 11th (any full BaB class) since Shield Master negates all the penalty anyway.

I think the Unhindered Shield Feat might help, but I don't have Armor Master's Handbook.

You could always just use a Light Shield instead. It's one less AC. Big whoop.

[Blymurkla]

Sundakan wrote:

I think the Unhindered Shield Feat might help, but I don't have Armor Master's Handbook.

There's a feat in there that's called Unhindering Shield. It lets you use a buckler for AC and count as having a free hand.

Sundakan wrote:

You could always just use a Light Shield instead. It's one less AC. Big whoop.

There's a slight reduction in damage when bashing and I think there's abilities/feats that only work with heavy shields that one might want, but on the whole I agree with you.

[JamesTheDonkey]

If you have weapon training in heavy shield, the Advanced Weapon Training: Effortless Dual Wielding reduces the penalty for using a one-handed weapon in the off-hand to -2.

This is from Blood of the Beast.

[AvatarFan2010]

Thanks everyone! Youve been a big help!

[Swiftbrook]

Sundakan wrote:

Mind you it doesn't matter after 6th level (Ranger/Slayer), 10th level (Fighter, any full BaB class with a Combat feat at 10th), or 11th (any full BaB class) since Shield Master negates all the penalty anyway.

CRB wrote:

Shield Master Feat

Benefit: You do not suffer any Two-Weapon Fighting penalties on attack rolls made with a shield while you are wielding another weapon. Add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus.

You still incur the attack penalties with your primary weapon.

Yes, this is an old tread and I'm late to the pary

[Scott Wilhelm]

Another option would is to not Shield Bash at all. Just use your Shield for the AC Bonus and 2 Weapon Fight with Dwarven War Axe and use Armor Spikes as your off-hand weapon.

[avr]

Swiftbrook wrote:

Sundakan wrote:

Mind you it doesn't matter after 6th level (Ranger/Slayer), 10th level (Fighter, any full BaB class with a Combat feat at 10th), or 11th (any full BaB class) since Shield Master negates all the penalty anyway.

CRB wrote:

Shield Master Feat

Benefit: You do not suffer any Two-Weapon Fighting penalties on attack rolls made with a shield while you are wielding another weapon. Add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus.

You still incur the attack penalties with your primary weapon.

Yes, this is an old tread and I'm late to the pary

The answer for true munchkins here is to TWF with two shields. The effectiveness is reportedly amazing.

[Derklord]

avr wrote:

The answer for true munchkins here is to TWF with two shields. The effectiveness is reportedly amazing.

Not as manchkin as you might think, because the Dwarven War-Shield actually includes text (both rule text and flavor text) about wielding two of them.